Silver Hoarding In 1961

Copper - base metal, measured by the pound, used only in trillions of pennies

Silver - precious metal, measured by the ounce (troy), used for dimes and up only

I can't see a huge future for hoarding copper because it's still being tied to the dollar (if it were not tied so, then they would not be hoarded for above-face-value - they would in fact BE money, but they are only instruments of money). Copper is used more in industry than as money, so I suspect that only if there were a global copper shortage then MAYBE your rolls of pre 82s will be worth something.


The longer they (bronze cents) stay in circulation, the better, I think. On average, isn't the cent the oldest circulating coin in the USA?

I doubt that we will ever see aluminum coins. However, it is possible, and other countries have had aluminum coins in the past and maybe even today. And those coins look and feel like worthless junk, which they are.

I agree that aluminum coins feel like junk but aluminum is one of the most abundant elements in the Earth's crust, so it would make sense to use it for coinage. Its biggest problem is likely that the vending machine lobby would not like such light weight coins at all and would spend mucho dinero to see to it that they were not put into production. IIRC, they made a few aluminum pennies sometime back in the 1970s. These were shown to various congress critters, who were supposed to check them out and then return them. Somehow, they never seemed to have gotten returned. Imagine that. Congress critters with sticky fingers!